Slaying case stumbles in Salvadorean court

A Salvadorean court threw out the indictments of five soldiers charged with the 1980 slayings of four US churchwomen. Sources in the Third Judicial Council in San Vicente said the court declared that the original judge in the case failed to consider key evidence before he issued the indictments in November. The court ordered the judge to restart the process of gathering evidence.

One of the five guardsmen arrested confessed to participating in the killing and implicated the four others. But Salvadorean law prohibits his testimony from being used against the other four.